Going teetotal is the only way to avoid risking health with alcohol, scientists have claimed.

A major global study has concluded there is no safe limit to alcohol consumption.

Previous research suggested that moderate levels of alcohol - around one drink a day for women and two for men - may protect against heart disease.

But the authors of the new study insist that any benefits from drinking alcohol are outweighed by the harms.

Any protection against heart disease, stroke and diabetes offered by alcohol turned out to be "not statistically significant", said the researchers.

Diseases like cancer and liver disease are 'strongly associated' with alcohol, according to the research (Image: Philip Toscano/PA Wire)

Cancer, liver disease and many more

They estimate that consuming just one drink per day increases the risk of developing one of 23 alcohol-related health problems by 0.5 per cent, compared with not drinking at all.

Each year, 2.2 per cent of women and 6.8 per cent of men die from alcohol-related health problems including cancer, tuberculosis and liver disease.

Other harmful consequences from drinking alcohol included accidents and violence.

Worldwide, drinking alcohol was the seventh leading risk factor for overall premature death and disease in 2016, the study found.

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However among people aged 15 to 49 it was the most important risk factor, accounting for 3.8 per cent of women's and 12.2 per cent of men's deaths.

For people over the age of 50, cancers were the leading cause of alcohol-related deaths. They were responsible for 27.1 per cent of alcohol-related deaths of women and 18.9% of men.

The 0.5 per cent increase in risk meant that 918 people per 100,000 who consumed one alcoholic drink a day would develop a health problem compared with 914 who did not drink.

The relative increase in risk rose to seven per cent for people who consumed two drinks a day and soared to 37 per cent for those who downed five drinks.

The only way to avoid health risk associated with drinking alcohol is to stop drinking alcohol, according to the research (Image: Horsche)

'Risks rise rapidly'

US lead researcher Dr Max Griswold, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said: "Previous studies have found a protective effect of alcohol on some conditions, but we found that the combined health risks associated with alcohol increase with any amount of alcohol.

"In particular, the strong association between alcohol consumption and the risk of cancer, injuries, and infectious diseases offset the protective effects for ischaemic heart disease in women in our study.

"Although the health risks associated with alcohol start off being small with one drink a day, they then rise rapidly as people drink more."

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How was the research carried out?

The scientists pooled together data from 592 studies with a total of 28 million participants to assess the global health risks associated with alcohol.

A standard alcohol drink was defined as one containing 10 grams of alcohol.

The team used a new statistical method to estimate the risks of consuming between zero and 15 standard alcohol drinks each day.

Globally, around one in three people - or 2.4 billion - drink alcohol, said the researchers, whose findings are reported in The Lancet medical journal.

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Drinking patterns across the globe

Drinking patterns varied greatly around the world, the study found.

Denmark had the highest proportion of alcohol consumers, 95.3 per cent of women and 97.3 per cent of men, and Pakistan and Bangladesh the lowest. Just 0.8 per cent of Pakistani men and 0.3 per cent of Bangladeshi women drank alcohol.

Men in Romania and women in Ukraine drank the most - 8.2 and 4.2 drinks per day respectively.

Professor Emmanuela Gakidou, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said: "Worldwide we need to revisit alcohol control policies and health programmes, and to consider recommendations for abstaining from alcohol."